Lich

Lich

The Dire

18 + 1.55 15 + 2 18 + 3.25

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 492 967 1575 Mana 234 884 1508 Damage 42-51 92-101 140-149 Armor 1.1 5.58 10.62 Attacks / Second 0.67 0.86 1.07

Movement Speed 315 Turn Rate 0.5 Sight Range 1800/800 Attack Range 550 Missile Speed 900 Attack Duration 0.46+0.54 Cast Duration 0.4+1.1 Base Attack Time 1.7

Ethreain the Lich is a ranged intelligence Hero that uses his abilities to slow his enemies down with his ice-based attacks, as well as giving a boost to ally defenses, and serves as a great teamfight ganker with his powerful ultimate. He can use Sacrifice to easily deny creeps and keep his mana high, making him very good at harassing in the early stages of the game. While a relatively frail hero and mostly known as a support, he can prove to be a force to be reckoned and mighty foe to stand with as he can render the attempts of multiple enemies futile with his ultimate, Chain Frost. Lich is a powerful crowd controller and can easily turn a teamfight, or dominate in a lane.

Bio

Ethreain, the Lich Play "Feel death's cold embrace." Role: Support / Lane Support / Nuker Lore: In life, the frost-mage Ethreain (not yet a Lich) had used the threat of destructive ice to enslave entire kingdoms. His subjects, aided by a few desperate magicians, eventually grew bold enough to ambush him. Armed with enough charmed rope to bind him forever, they tied the frost mage to adamant weights and dropped him in a pool known chiefly for being bottomless. It wasn't. He only fell for a year or so before an outcrop snagged him. There he rested, dead but undecaying, until the geomancer Anhil thought to verify the legend of the supposedly bottomless Black Pool. Anhil's plumbline snarled with the ropes that bound the drowned magician, and up he hauled an unexpected prize. Thinking that by rendering the dead undead, he could question the Lich about the properties of the pool, he removed the bindings and commenced a simple rite of resurrection. Even the descendants of Ethreain's enemies were long forgotten by time, so there were none to warn Anhil against imprudence. But he learned the error of his judgment almost immediately, as Lich threw off the shackles and consumed him. Voice: Gary Schwartz (Responses)

Abilities

Frost Blast Q V Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemies Magical Blasts the target enemy unit with damaging frost, dealing area damage and slowing movement and attack rates for 4 seconds. The primary target takes the most damage. Range: 600 Radius: 200 Slow Duration: 4 Initial Target Damage: 50/100/150/200 Area Damage: 75/100/125/150 Movement Speed Slow: 30% Attack Speed Slow: 20% 8 125/150/170/190 Only blocked if primary target. Frost-mage Ethreain has not forgotten even the simplest of ice manipulation.

Notes: Main target effectively takes 125/200/275/350 damage.

Ice Armor W F Ability Affects Auto-Cast Allies Creates a shield around the target friendly unit, which adds armor and slows attacking melee units. Lasts 40 seconds. Range: 800 Duration: 40 Armor Bonus: 3/5/7/9 Movement Speed Slow: 30% Attack Speed Slow: 20% 5 50 Originally crafted during his ambush for self-defense, the Lich is capable of enchanting others with a formidable defense of frost magic.

Notes: If autocast is activated, Lich will cast this spell on nearby allied heroes who are attacked. Allied units can be affected by the Ice Armor Debuff.

Sacrifice E D Ability Affects Target Unit Allies Sacrifices a friendly creep and converts its current HP into mana for Lich. Range: 400 Current Health Converted: 15%/30%/45%/60% 35/30/25/20 25 It was not unheard of Ethreain to make examples out of those who contested his rule during his human life.

Notes: Enemy heroes get no experience from creeps killed with Sacrifice.

Chain Frost R C Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemies Magical Releases an orb of frost that bounces up to 7 times, slowing and damaging enemy units. The first target is mini-stunned. Range: 750 (850*) Bounce Distance: 575 Damage: 280/370/460 (370/460/550*) Movement Speed Slow: 30% Attack Speed Slow: 20% Slow Duration: 4 145/115/60 200/325/500 Will still mini-stun and bounce. Only blocked if primary target. Will still bounce regardless. Increases damage and casting range. Almost universally considered the ultimate in frost magic, Ethreain's orb of frozen death strikes fear into those who dare stand against him.

Notes: There is a 0.2 second delay between bounces Target is mini-stunned upon cast

Recommended items

Explanation: Starting - Generally Lich should start out with HP regen items like Healing Salves and Tangos. Because early points should be put in sacrifice, Lich can harass effectively without any Intelligence or mana boosts. Due to his item-independant nature, Lich may be and often is more suited to buying a courier than even hard supports. Early-game - A Bracer can be taken if Lich is suffering distinctly from a lack of HP, and if Lich is enduring much harssment, a magic stick may be purchased. Core - Tranquil Boots and then Mekansm should be built due to the advantage they give to your team at the expense of your nearly unlimited mana. Situational - Boots of Travel can be built if lich is particularly well-off before he buys his Tranquil Boots and is the team's primary source of pushing potential. Scythe of Vyse and Shiva's Guard can give your team more disable if they need it. If your ultimate is reliably securing kills, Aghanim's Scepter is an excellent choice.

Tips

• Spamming Frost Blast and Sacrifice early game can be extremely effective by harassing and denying efficiently.
• An effective strategy is to take Sacrifice immediately. Even though you won't need the mana earned from it, you can deny a creep immediately to prevent the enemy from earning experience and to pull the lane towards your tower. Keep in mind that by level 2 no difference is made and by three the choice is yours meaning that Sacrifice to Frost Blast to Frost Blast puts you level at Level 3, whereas Frost Blast to Sacrifice to Frost Blast gives you virtually no advantage.
• Despite primarily being a support hero, Lich can play a very effective mid. Combining his powerful Frost Blast to harass the enemy while denying his own creeps can shut down the enemy's laning phase.
• Ice Armor is a very cheap yet effective ability. Cast it on nearby allies to keep their armor up, or yourself to increase your own survival.
• Keep in mind that Ice Armor can be set to auto-cast, automatically casting it on heroes that are being attacked.
• Since Lich already has high armor thanks to his Ice Armor, getting a Cloak or even Hood of Defiance will greatly improve his survivability. It can also be built into Pipe of Insight later.
• Chain Frost can be one of the most devastating ultimates in the game, and can easily turn a teamfight in your favor when used properly. Each time it hits, it deals very high magic damage and bounces to another random enemy unless there are no targets nearby. Use it to deal damage quickly to clustered Heroes.
• One of the biggest disadvantage of Chain Frost is its slow movement speed. This gives time for enemies to split apart preventing chain frost from bouncing. You can however, work with heroes like Dark Seer's Vacuum, Faceless Void's Chronosphere or Enigma's Black Hole which locks heroes in place taking the full damage from Chain Frost for an extremely devastating damage.
• Heroes like Queen of Pain, Death Prophet or Tiny are able to clear creep waves quickly allowing Chain Frost to deal its full damage to heroes.
• When casting Chain Frost on a lone Hero (targeting the hero with chain frost) with 5 creeps, there is approximately ~55% chance of it hitting a hero twice, and ~65% of it hitting a hero twice with 3 creeps. This almost assures a kill on most lone heroes provided the enemy has no escape mechanism with 3 creeps at early levels. Be sure to follow up with a Frost Blast to slow them from escaping Chain Frost range.
• If Lich catches the enemy team killing Roshan, using Chain Frost will force them to desist and/or deal huge damage to all of them; as Roshan's Lair is very difficult to disperse inside, especially when slowed.

Trivia

• Lich's voice actor, Gary Schwartz, also voiced the Heavy and Demoman classes in Team Fortress 2, another title by Valve. Lich's lines, "UM NUM NUM" refer to a line said by the Heavy: the first is an alternate to "OM NOM NOM", used when the Sandvich Edible Device is consumed.
• Lich is almost a copy of the Warcraft 3 Lich hero, who can learn Frost Nova, Frost Armor and Dark Ritual; in Dota 2, these skills were renamed to Frost Blast, Ice Armor and Sacrifice, respectively.
• In the first iteration of Invoker's skill build, when the order of his three orbs determined the spell that was invoked, Frost Nova was one of his abilities and functioned almost identically to the current spell, and was mapped to Quas Quas Exort.
• In DotA, Lich was known as Kel'Thuzad, a notable character from the Warcraft universe.
• In an earlier version of DotA, Lich and Crystal Maiden shared the same Frost Nova ability. In later versions, Crystal Maiden's skill was changed into a target-area slow called Crystal Nova, while Lich kept the original version.

Update history

November 08, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Chain Frost not working with Refresher.

September 21, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Chain Frost being dodgable.

June 11, 2012 Patch

• Fixed the following spells being castable on magic immune allies: Nightmare, Frost Armor, Nature's Guise, Holy Persuasion, Decrepify, Astral Imprisonment, Shadow Word and X Marks The Spot.

May 17, 2012 Patch

• Fixed timing on Chain Frost ministun.

February 16, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Chain Frost having a chance to end prematurely near fog of war edges.
• Fixed a recent bug where chainfrost wouldn't choose a magic immune target to bounce to.
• Fixed Chain Frost deciding late as to which unit it will bounce to next (it would decide after its bounce delay, instead of before).

October 27, 2011 Patch

• Frost Armor sound effect now plays when the buff is refreshed.

October 06, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Lich's Dark Ritual being usable on couriers.
• Added a new custom effect for Lich's Frost Armor.
• Lich's Chain Frost is now more visible.

September 29, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Dark Ritual not being castable on some units.

September 09, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Frost Armor affecting Magic Immune attackers.

July 22, 2011 Patch

• Dark Ritual can no longer target summoned units.

July 01, 2011 Patch

• Adjusted Chainfrost bounce speed.
• Units sacrificed via Dark Ritual won't give deny XP to enemies.
• Dark Ritual now displays mana restored.

June 02, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Chain Frost and Paralyzing Cask such that they now bounce correctly when their target unit dies/dodges.

May 26, 2011 Patch

• Added projectile vision to Windrunner's Powershot and Lich's Chain Frost.

May 20, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Chain Frost stopping immediatly once it finds a magic immune unit.

April 09, 2011 Patch

• New model for Lich, who is re-enabled!

March 12, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Chain Frost initial cast being unable to target magic immune (ministun still works on them).
• Fixed Chain Frost bounces slowing all magic immune.

March 03, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Lich not playing his attack sound.

February 19, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Chain Frost hitting couriers.

February 12, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Frost Armor to only autocast on heroes.

February 01, 2011 Patch

• Added shield icon for Lich's Frost Armor

December 17, 2010 Patch

• Frost Nova not applying the slow debuff to the target.
• Frost Armor proccing on ranged attacks.

Balance changelog

6.75

• Frost Blast cooldown decreased from 9.25/9.25/9.25/8 to 8.

6.72

• Sacrifice cooldown rescaled from 30/27/24/21 to 35/30/25/20.

6.70

• Frost Blast primary target damage increased from 50/100/125/175 to 50/100/150/200.
• Ice Armor
  • Manacost increased from 25 to 50.
  • Armor bonus reduced from 3/6/9/12 to 3/5/7/9.
• Sacrifice cooldown reduced from 55/50/45/40 to 30/27/24/21.

6.68

• Movement speed increased by 10.
• Starting damage rescaled from 37-56 to 42-51.

6.67

• Frost Blast Level 4 cooldown decreased from 9.25 to 8.

6.63

• Movement speed increased by 10.

6.50

• Chain Frost bounces count increased from 6 to 7.

6.49

• Increased Lich attack range from 500 to 550.

Gallery

• 

  Early Lich concept art

See also

• Lich responses
• Black Pool Watcher